I've been to daytona and seen the jville dealers walk away with more than one tray full of reds before so don't discount the play of all dealers.

Where I worked there was some sort of "tip agreement" and I was repeatedly assured that it was 100% legal for them to take a certain percentage out of my paycheck to cover the tax on the tips, the rest was mine to keep. I never got cash tips, but when people wanted to short buy for $3, I'd often just exchange it for chips from my pocket, as it'd mess up my clean rack. Nobody ever asked or cared how much I made, and I didn't have to convert anything to anything.

Also, everybody around here wants dealers to play. Nine white shirts and an empty seat. As a dealer, it's bad to play. When you lose, you lose. When you win, you lose. For anyone else, it's good.

What do you mean?

You lose when you lose, you lose when you win.

I get off my shift and I sit down with a rack. I blow through the rack. I lose.

I get off my shift and I sit down with a rack. I triple up. I've pissed off the very people who provided that rack in the first place, diminishing my later tips. I lose.

I've "floated" (played instead of dealing) plenty, but I won't do it if I've dealt a full rotation or the table is full of regulars. In fact, I deliberately focused my study on poker forms not offered at my room so the temptation would be less.

I find your left profile to be sexier.

Gottcha, that makes perfect sense, thanks.

Why does it seem like everyone thinks dealers can't play? I know of dealers that are good, and dealers that are bad, but it doesn't mean 99.999% of dealers will be dead money or donators. I'd rather play with the loose cannon dealer types, but the no nonsense types seem to be the better players.

For every stereotype there are plenty of exceptions. But it is still fairly accurate.
I think the most important factors are
-at the end of their shift they have cash in their pocket.
-they have seen alot of hands and are itching to play. they don't go to the table, fold for a couple hours and then go home.
-since they deal this game all the time and see a bunch of hands they think they are better than they actually are.

FWIW, I didnt magically morph into a losing player when i started dealing, so 99.99% might be a little high.

As an aside: be aware that floorpersons frequently work for a percentage of dealer tokes (in fact, at least in places I've worked, it's usually at least half their pay). Asking that large tokes be given "on the side" is a common way for dealers to quietly keep the floor percentage for themselves. Be aware.


q/q

I think most of us here would agree that the majority of people who play poker in a casino suck at the game. If a dealer sits down to play, he is just another statistic. Nothing special about it. However, in my experience, all the players take special notice that there is indeed a dealer sitting in and note how much he wins or loses.

The reason dealers suck is because those that are good understand what a bad idea it is to play in your room. You don't see the ones who are good.

We all know that poker is mostly about folding and observing. Imagine doing that for 8 hours. You'd be super itchy to play a hand and teach a thing or two to all those idiots you'd been watching all day. You'd also be fatigued and not on your best game. And you'd also be trying to show off to your coworkers, succumbing to FPS, hoping to get that monster pot so you could give a big toke.

Excellent post. Sums it up nicely.

I'm fine with dealers playing, but when I was in Vegas and the guy that had been flooring for the first 5 hours of my session sat down to play, I was a little uneasy. It went fine and I felt everything was done on the up and up but there's something disconcerting about playing against the dealer's boss.

They're spending tons of hours dealing cards in a card room, instead of playing, for a reason.

I recently heard a guy who works at the Rio say the dealers can't play in their own room anymore at any time. Apparently they had a knucklehead who couldn't behave himself and they fixed the problem by barring everyone from playing instead of just barring or firing that one employee.

Imagine him dealing your opponent a one outer on the river...then sitting down across from you as a player and making a two outer on the river to felt you lol.

Where I deal, we turn in all out tips, get a receipt and we are taxed on it at 100%.

Nothing is shared with anyone else.

I have had a number of players offer to meet me in the parking lot to tip me if I ever deal them a bad beat jackpot hand. I appreaciate the offer but I would likely never take them up on it. My job is worth much more to me than the few extra dollars I would save from the taxes I wouldn't have to pay.

But it's nice to know so many players feel that kindly toward me.

As to poker dealers as poker players...

I have never understood the reason players assume all or most dealers are bad poker players.

I have no way of determining what percentage of dealers are good players in relation to what percentage of players are any good.

I do have some info I collected in about five minutes on Card Player's site.

Cindy Violtte, great player, former dealer.

Mike "the Mouth" Matasau, great player, lousy personal life, former dealer.

Scotty Nguyen, World Champion, WSOP Main Event, former dealer

Gavin Smith

Scott Fischman

Evelyn Ng

Former dealers all.

Just for what it's worth.

There's a couple posts that really hit it on the head. In conclusion: Not all dealers are bad players, it just appears that the good ones don't play, and the bad ones play too much........lol

from what i have seen ~ its the dealer's who played poker before they moved over are the good ones ~

key word: former

Where do you work that you don't claim your own tips? That would suck...no cash and taxes?! Crazy

And yes dealers that become players tend to give too much action and spew

How do you think the dealer feels?

I've had my boss sit down, play every hand, spew off 3 racks in my down,
all the time glaring at me like she wants to kill me...

Finally some kind of thread that dealers respond to, so I'll ask a question here...I'm dealing the WSOP this year and have been dealing in underground games in Houston for 3 years...how hard is it to get a job in Vegas, and what is the best way to go about it?

How underground are the games? I mean if like most underground games I have seen you have no work history fo rthe last 3 years you will have trouble getting past the HR people.